“What’s that business about a ‘Bonus Book?’” you say? Well, here’s how DC explained it back in ’88:

Every month until further notice, we’ll be adding an extra 16 pages to an ongoing DC title and filling them with the work of promising newcomers. You get a free story. We get a chance to work with people we feel will become important creators in a few years. So everybody wins. Enjoy.

Yeah, I know: There’s not a whole lot of enthusiasm in that description, and I can’t muster more than a lackluster response to the Bonus Book here presented, which is basically a domestic sitcom based around the League’s interaction with Big Barda. I’ll give ‘em this, though: The story seems to take place outside of continuity, and that’s always a breath of fresh air.

Meanwhile, the “real” story deals with those League members who have been chasing Manga Khan all across the cosmos in an attempt to rescue Mr. Miracle. Looking for a quick solution, Manga hires Lobo to kill the Leaguers, but then Barda boom-tubes him all the way to Earth, where he just so happens to land smack dab on top of Guy Gardner. Basically, it’s all just a 22-page buildup to the return of Guy’s tough-guy asshole persona. (And yeah, it’s about time.)

Monday, December 28, 2009

Hey there, dear readers. Just a friendly reminder that this Wednesday, December 30, marks the beginning of Indy Comic Book Week, when a number of independently produced and published books will be hitting the shelves in lieu of the normal Diamond-distributed fare (Diamond having decided to take the week off). To find a participating comic shop, bounce on over to the official ICBW blog and/or website. Yo-ho!

Saturday, December 26, 2009

As the text says around the comic, Thor is copyright Marvel Comics Group and Hostess is a registered trademark of Continental Baking Co. This ad was scanned from Howard the Duck #28, released November 1978 and copyright Marvel Comics Group.

Captain Atom shows up just in time to stop the radioactive Wandjina from killing his teammates. However, he doesn’t show up in time to stop Blue Beetle and Booster Gold from running around like they’re in Wham (with Green Flame playing backup).

Also, in the letter’s page, Mark Waid confirms what he let slip back in issue 13, writing, “Black Canary is gone. Really she is. I promise. She’s no longer around. So will you guys GET OFF MY BACK?”

Kevin Maguire is back with a vengeance for what just might be the best-looking issue of this book yet. Even crazier is the return of Wandjina the Thunderer, who’s become a sort of radioactive Frankenstein’s monster in the pocket of Colonel Harjavti. Anyway, that’s what Harjavti believes until Queen Bee plays this hand:

Friday, December 11, 2009

Jon D. W. throws down a good bit of his hard-earned cash on comics. (And sometimes, as in the case of Planetary, he borrows the comics from friends.) Here, he spills the beans on whether or not it was worth it. But to paraphrase LeVar Burton, don’t just take his word for it--you should read comics too.

In general, I’m not crazy about the X-Men flying off into space and bebopping around other planets. However, I’m an unabashed fan of Whedon and Cassaday’s take on this cast of characters, and I was more than happy to go along for the ride. (It’s a testament to Whedon’s abilities as a storyteller that I so readily accepted there being a planet named “Breakworld.”) Cassaday’s propensity for drawing panels that bleed off the edge of the page makes the reader feel the connecting pieces of the puzzle are just out of view--the same feeling that weighs heavily on the X-Men in all four volumes. Unfortunately, the binding in this paperback makes it hard at times to tell if the panel does indeed bleed off the page; oftentimes you can’t quite open the book wide enough to see the border, and two-page splashes really suffer. Nevertheless, the story is a triumph, and it’s a thrill to see the last page emblazoned with “WHEDON, CASSADAY, MARTIN.” Those three crafted what for me stands as a definitive X-story.

PLANETARY BOOK 1: ALL OVER THE WORLD AND OTHER STORIES
Warren Ellis – Writer
John Cassaday – Artist
Laura Depuy – Colorist with David Baron and WildStorm FX
Ali Fuchs and Bill O’Neil – Letterers

I know I’m late coming to this book, but what a brilliant idea: A team of three super-powered beings circle the globe uncovering the supernatural events of the 20th century--the events us readers know from 100 years of comic books, movies, pulps and still more comic books. The meta aspects of the series are a thrill without ever becoming arch: Monster Island, here rebranded Island Zero; the Incredible Hulk, who here uses the advanced mathematics stored in his own brain to save himself from a terrible explosion, only to be captured and starved to death over 20 years; and my favorite of all, the Fantastic Four, who here spearheaded a beyond-top-secret space program and returned to Earth with even darker intentions than they left with. The questions are many that this book posits, but that’s half the point: Not only is it important to ask questions, it’s important to ask whether the questions you’re asking are really the ones you want--or need--answered.

The through line of the issues here collected is the gradual break in the cloud front that has been obfuscating Elijah Snow’s memories. Among his retrieved memories: what the Four have done to him, and just who exactly Planetary’s wizard behind the curtain, the Fourth Man, actually is. Cassaday’s art is top notch, especially in his use of light and shadow, and although it’s great fun to watch Ellis and Cassaday riff on giant ants and James Bond (here named John Stone, agent of S.T.O.R.M.), my favorite story upends the Superman, Green Lantern and Wonder Woman mythos. Planetary, it seems, just might be the Watchmen of the 21st century.

Classic monsters, Sherlock Holmes, mighty Mjolnir and creation itself. This list only scratches the surface of the ideas Ellis and Cassaday tackle, tear apart and put back together in wild new forms throughout this volume. For my money, the final issue of this book provides the most fun, with Planetary directly attacking the Four while uncovering a program for manned spaceflight dating back to 1851. I’m thrilled that issue 27 has finally hit the stands, and I can’t wait for the fourth (yes, the number four is important indeed) volume to finally be collected in 2010.

Collecting the first 11 issues of Eastman and Laird’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles--plus additional issues dedicated to each of the four turtles and their extraterrestrial robotic companion, the Fugitoid--this book is pure fun and a must-have for any Turtles fan. After the first issue, which riffs heavily on Frank Miller’s Ronin, the story takes the turtles on a galaxy-spanning adventure before bringing them back down to Earth and refocusing them on their martial-arts roots. As someone who grew up with the old cartoon, it’s great to see what changed and what stayed (relatively) the same, and it’s especially noteworthy just how closely the first live-action feature hewed to this material. The final four chapters are perhaps the best, though all are a joy to behold in their black, white and gray (courtesy of Duo-Shade board) glory. And, lest I forget to mention him, Casey Jones!

After threatening the destruction of the Earth last issue, Lord Manga turns tail when it becomes apparent that fighting the world’s heroes will cost more than its worth.

This issue really feels like filler while waiting for Maguire’s return to penciling duties. However, it does leave Mr. Miracle stranded aboard Manga’s spaceship, causing Martian Manhunter, Rocket Red, Big Barda and Gnort to take off in pursuit. Meanwhile, Guy Gardner peaced out from the League’s close encounter in favor of asking Batman to be more active with the League.

This time around, a planet-devouring spaceship ruled by the evil Lord Manga threatens to destroy the Earth if its inhabitants don’t agree to an ill-defined barter system. With Batman and Black Canary both tied up elsewhere, the short-staffed League just might need Fire and Ice’s help after all, but we the readers are left to believe that our planet’s last best hope is none other than Gnort.

While I unabashedly love Steve Leialoha’s inks on Fables, his pencils here leave a lot to be desired, and DeMatteis’ script relies heavily on a long series of jokes that almost all fall flat. I won’t lie: This issue struck me as a dud. Here’s looking forward to issue 16, when at least Kevin Maguire will be back on pencils.

Monday, November 30, 2009

So, here's a story (of sorts): I check my email today and lo and behold, there's a message that makes reference to my brief little writeup of Michael Kupperman's Tales Designed to Thrizzle. "Who out there is actually reading The Danger Digest?" I wondered aloud. Turns out, it's none other than writer, gentleman, provocateur and man-about-town Patrick Wensink, who kindly asked me to run the following announcement:

Patrick Wensink recently decided there’s only one way to celebrate the release of his book, Sex Dungeon for Sale!--and that's by holding a coloring contest.

Accordingly, he had a series of illustrations created based on some of the book’s stories, including a Kindergartener who thinks he’s French, a puddle of ketchup shaped like Elvis, and something called “Chicken Soup for the Kidnapper’s Soul.”

Adding to the excitement, Wensink is offering the winner an autographed stack of his favorite books from 2009, which are:

Friday, November 27, 2009

Alfred's ribald shenanigans from the Batman and Robin newspaper strip, originally published Wednesday, September 27, 1944. Written by Alvin Schwartz (under the pen name Vernon Woodrum), penciled by Jack Burnley, inked and embellished by Charles Paris and lettered by Ira Schnapp. Scanned from the book Batman: The Dailies 1943-1946, published by Sterling Publishing Co., Inc., by arrangement with DC Comics.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Keith Giffen steps in for penciling duties in an issue that was clearly aimed at boosting sales of Suicide Squad; the whole shebang ends in a cliffhanger that wraps up in issue 10 of the other title. By now it’s probably needless to say I won’t be reading that, so we’ll just have to catch as catch can.

Nevertheless, and excepting the straight-up lousy cover, Giffen’s art suits the book well. And since he’s been providing page breakdowns since the beginning, there’s a uniformity to the layouts that helps connect this issue to the previous 12.

Apropos of nothing--or at least not much--the letter column ends with editor Mark Waid saying that “the Canary indeed departed from the League,” even though she’s in this issue. Since I’m not totally steeped in the DCU circa 1988, I can’t be positive of this, but I think that just might’ve been a spoiler.

Despite the cover’s rather heavy-handed suggestion, Maxwell Lord is indeed a man. To be exact, a wealthy businessman, who just so happens to have partnered with a machine that became self-aware. Naturally, zaniness ensued.

A flashback wades through the duo’s machinations over the past year’s worth of books, and ultimately Max destroys the machine and earns the League’s … forgiveness? Respect? Decoder ring? Something like that. Anyway, the issue is most important for revealing that Green Flame (a.k.a. Fire) and Ice Maiden (a.k.a. Ice)--who will soon become major players in this series--want into the League. Enjoy these two pages in all their glory:
Who the hell is that angry, cigar-dropping man in the last panel? I don’t know, and it doesn’t matter. These two pages are fantastic.

Finally, this issue’s nostalgia alert is brought to you by your public TV station:

This issue’s a real return to form after the whole Millennium debacle. The cover alone is worth the price of admission, and the show inside lives up to every inked line. Despite having been gunned down by his secretary, Maxwell Lord appears alive and well, at least until he’s attacked by his own skyscraper. The League saves him, though, and then follows his paranoid ramblings to a fight with the giant robot known as the Construct. And as if those hijinks weren’t madcap enough, the whole show ends with a reveal of Metron sitting back in his magical La-Z-Boy and just daring the League to make him stand up.

In other good news, the backup story from the past few issues—the one that never made any sense so far as I could figure—seems to have been scrapped, and in rather anticlimactic fashion, the letter’s page has at long last been christened Justice Log.

Ahem. Yes. Well. Not too much to say this week, folks. Except this issue represents exactly what I so strongly dislike about these “universe-spanning events” that infuse each page with all sorts of characters who aren't usually in the title and serve basically as advertisements for other books currently on sale by the same publisher.

By far the most notable event in this book is the first appearance of G’nort, who at this point looks basically like a dude in a lousy dog suit:

Maguire’s art feels a bit stiff here--he’s presented with an awful lot of panels showing a gross number of heroes in wide shots, and as previously mentioned, I happen to believe he does his best work in close-up. The dialogue, too, frequently comes off as stilted, like some company suit re-worked the script just to make it fit into “Millennium,” nevermind that the title on the cover is still Justice League International.

Also, I haven’t got a damn clue what happens in the backup story. Maybe everything would make sense were I reading every tie-in issue of this “Millennium” thingy, but if this issue is any indication, it was a silly story bloated by its own sense of importance, and I’m not losing any sleep over missing it. Ah well. At least issue 11 should have things back to normal…

The Not-So-Secret Origin of Jon D. Witmer and The Danger Digest!

A child of the Midwest, Jon--who notably eschews the letter ‘h’ in both his first and last names--was born and raised just outside of Cleveland, Ohio. After acquiring from a friend, through dubious means, a copy of The Flash #350, young Jon became a voracious comic-book reader. With a degree in film studies from The Ohio State University, Jon today resides in Los Angeles, California, where by day he serves as the associate editor of American Cinematographer magazine, and by night he dives deep into the turbulent waters of The Danger Digest…